Saturday, 9 November 2013

Rambo Videogame Shifts Series' Violent Aesthetic...Again

A while back, I wrote an article in New Review of Film and Television Studies about the Rambo series - having seen all of the Rambo films together for the first time in my late 20s, I was struck by how radically the approach to depicting violence shifted across the sequels. Of particular note is the most recent film (Rambo), which is jaw-droppingly bloody. A couple of years later, and the aesthetic has shifted again: the Rambo Videogame is due out in 2014. Although the game's plot is based around the first three films, the approach to violence is clearly aligned with the fourth film's "splattery" ethos. I am intrigued to see whether the game also ditches the comic-book storytelling of First Blood: Part 2 in favour of Rambo's grim tone.